Art Market

An Old Master portrait of an elderly Stuart woman took £13,200 at Mander Auctioneers (17.5% buyer’s premium) in Suffolk on November 18.

In September, eight works by two of Singapore’s most celebrated 20th century artists sold for multi-estimate sums at Andrew Smith & Son (20% buyer’s premium).

This painting of a flower market in Paris (below) by the Australian artist Ethel Carrick-Fox (1872-1952) took top honours at The Cotswold Auction Company (20% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham on November 14.

Wright Marshall (21% buyer’s premium) featured a still-life by John Pawle (1915-2010) in its sale on October 28 in Knutsford, Cheshire.

The last remnants of Mallett’s stock, including a clutch of 18th century pictures, were offered in a final sale in Berkshire on November 8.

For many years, marine art sales were used by the big auction houses to tap into the wealth of the world’s yachting and sailing community.

A rather unconventional painting by the Victorian artist Joseph Farquharson (1846-1935) featured in Catherine Southon’s (18% buyer’s premium) sale in Surrey.

Just a clutch of canvases by the Cornish artist Marjorie Frances ‘Midge’ Bruford (1902-58) have gone under the auctioneer’s gavel.

A market-fresh drawing of a Balinese lady by the Dutch artist Willem Gerard Hofker (1902-81) soared to £8500 at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19% buyer’s premium) in Taunton.

A collection of market-fresh pictures with a distinctive Surrealist streak found favour with buyers at Charterhouse (21% buyer’s premium) in Dorset.

Fitzroy Square to the north of central London was a key location in early 20th century British art. Virginia Woolf lived here for several years, a few doors down from Bloomsbury Group artist Duncan Grant, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler also had a studio.

British and Irish watercolours piqued the interest of bidders at Tennants’ (18.5% buyer’s premium) Country House sale in Leyburn on October 14.

This archetypal still-life by Cecil Kennedy (1905-97) topped Halls’ (20% buyer’s premium) £300,000 auction on October 18.

The value of ‘Outsider’ art continues to grow following the dispersal of one of the UK’s largest collections at Anderson & Garland (25% buyer’s premium).

A brace of unrecorded pastels by celebrated Scottish Colourist SJ Peploe (1871-1935) sold strongly at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) in Crewkerne.

This evening village scene by the landscape painter James Hamilton Hay (1874- 1916) drew multiple bids at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium) in Exeter on October 3.

Figuring why a specific lot did unexpectedly well is part and parcel of reviewing auctions but this oil on board lunette of a pastoral idyll below is more of a challenge than most.

The clearance of a neglected local property by Lincolnshire auction house Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) unearthed several treasures including two watercolours by the 18th century British painter Thomas Girtin (1775-1802).

A double portrait by Federico Beltran Masses (1885-1949) attracted a flurry of bids at Bonhams’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) 19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist art auction on September 27.

A near-monochrome watercolour by the Australian artist and stage designer Loudon Sainthill (1918-69) sold for five times its top estimate at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on October 3-4.